Strange results on this. The votes were all over the shop. We had some thinking Tornts made Beat 2 and some thinking he made beat 4 which was by Dontez. Myself and Kharnivor were on even votes for beat 1. Great sample and great round. Cheers again to all that were involved and all that had a guess on this. Only planning on making this shit bigger with the more people that jump on board. Next round. We’re preparing an Easter special for round 7. Producers will have to think outside the box for this one I’m guessing. Maybe we’ll level the playing field some more to disguise some of the producers by dishing out the same drum break??

I picked this beauty up from an overseas seller who was getting rid of several Euro rock records. I offered him a deal for 10 or so & this is one of the LP’s that had plenty heat to work with. This entire record has some monumental gems that I thought were too eazy to flip so I’ve gone with a more complicated Jazz/fusion joint which rides in & out of different tempo’s and intensities. I’m not going to reveal name the track though. That’s for you diggers to figure out.

In the late 2000’s Bias B approached Heata regarding an idea to make a local documentary about the release of his Beeswax LP from 1998. Together with Discourse they formed a film crew and began interviewing people regarding the early years and development of Australian Hip Hop pre the 2000’s.
As more people were interviewed, the team started to realise that the project was bigger than just the story of one album. And so, the film took a different direction.This here is a Trailer cut from their interviews over time with original stock footage.

We feel that “98:Foundation” is a very important story to tell, not just for those who were around in the early days, but also for future generations to understand and respect the architects. This project has not been completed, with ideas waiting to be developed and funded towards a full length Doco feature. The trailer is just an example of what it could be with many more people yet to be interviewed and filmed.
With the assistance and hard work of people such as B Wiv (Daniel Cowan), Josh Davis & Trem One, the “98” trailer stands ready for future development. The burning question is….”would any one want to see this made into a full length Film?” So where to from here……

For 10 seconds sample time this month I reached out to the long lost Brisbane local who now resides in Japan, Matty Fresh. Obviously, due to logistics I couldn’t do the tour of his stood setup but I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

1. You’ve just pulled a gem of a sample, chopped it up or whatever your process might be. When it comes to a sequence for a track you just can’t get that vibe your after..What comes next?

I don’t like to spend too much time trying to make it work. If I haven’t got the general vibe of the beat within about 30 minutes I’ll usually just save the file and come back to it later, just keep it moving on to the next beat.

2. Tell us the story behind the Bulletproof Crates 7”, has it lead to any other projects?

DJ Sheep had the connect on that one. He made a few calls and made it happen. The timing was right, especially for the Roc Marciano track. Sheep had spent a few weeks in L.A. with Roc Marciano & the Arch Druids. When he got back we all connected and it came together.

With the J-Zone track, Sheep and J-Zone have been homies for a minute, Sheep hit him up and he did the drums with no hesitation.

The big thing we got from releasing the 7” is it has definitely given us an international fan base, especially with the XXL article and blogs like Ego Trip, Unkut and Nah Right posting it.

3. Has the way you approach beat making changed since you’ve acquired your most recent piece of equipment/software.

Not really. I bought an MPC 2500 when I got to Japan and just kept the same formula. I was using the 2000XL back in Australia so there wasn’t a big difference. In essence they both have the same work flow.

4. How is the digging/beat making/local hip-hop ‘scene’ in your part of Japan right now?

The digging scene has changed quite a bit in Japan since my first trip out here in 2006. A lot of the record stores have closed, especially in Tokyo. Once I could have just hit Shibuya on the regular and come up on all kinds of dope joints. Now you really have to search to find spots.

The beat making scene is cool, there’s a bunch of younger heads making some killer beats. Just like anywhere you’ve got a mix of good and not so good.

6. Incredible production but the MC let it down. Name a track or album like this

Off the top, I’m gonna say Big Noyd “On The Grind”. I’m a Big Noyd fan but that album kinda let me down for some reason.

7. What do you think gives a producer a signature sound, how much do you think equipment/software and sample selection has to do with it over their processes used.

I think it’s the person and not the equipment. What you do with a sample and how you do your drums, whether you use breaks and loops or if you chop the sample and do your own drums. I’ve heard beats done in Logic that sound like they’re done on an MPC and vice versa.
The signature sound comes over time, everyone seems develop a sound after being a producer for long enough.

8. How do you feel about this statement in the essence of beatmaking. “I found the same sample via you tube”

That’s a hard question. If it was someone just getting into the game and basing their whole career on YouTube samples then I wouldn’t feel to cool about it at all. I’m in 2 minds about the whole YouTube thing, I’m not gonna front, I have flipped a couple joints off YouTube in times where the sample was just too crazy and I knew I would never find the record or be able to get the record at a decent price. In my opinion, if you dig for records on the regular it’s cool if you want to grab a sample off the net every once in a while. But like I said if you gonna base your whole career on sampling off youtube and not know the history then that kinda kills the vibe. I’m definitely not a “purist” but without the knowledge of digging I’ve acquired over the years I don’t think I would feel the same about music.

9. Making a cohesive instrumental album would be a tricky thing for a lot of producers that are only familiar with making beats for MCs, was this a transition for you..The Ginza Crime Library and Still Sampling are very much a journey, does this take much planning for you or is a natural thing that comes with your samples?

I started out solely making beats, I never really worked with MC’s early on in the piece, so it’s kinda easy to be honest. I just think up a concept, something that influences me and get to work. With The Ginza Crime Library, that concept obviously comes from my connection to Japan and always watching Yakuza flicks.
Still Samplin’ just comes from still using samples in an era where a lot of people are playing keys, using live instruments and things of that nature. I generally make up a script in my head as if I was writing a short film and score the soundtrack to it.

10. You got 5k at your disposal, what are you going to buy for the stoods or would you take the nose blown and hookers route?

There’s not a great deal of studio equipment I really need at this stage. Maybe a new sound card. I’d probably use the 5K to reach out to some MC’s and put an album together. Maybe a Queens Bridge project or even just work with one MC and do an entire project. There’s a couple of artist I’d really like to work with. The first being AZ and the second would be Curren$y. If I could do a project with either of those 2, that’s where I’d spend the 5 G’s.

This round I thought Id ask Sean B if he wanted to get involved with things, he had the idea of blindfolding us and have us pick something out for the producers to flip. Cheers Sean.

Update:

Cheers to everyone getting involved with this round, took me a little longer to get it all together with the holidays just gone. Make sure you have a crack at picking who made what over the coming week and I’ll send the results live this time next week.

Happy New Year RunRoyalers. We hope y’all have had a great Christmas and New Years. Here’s a few records I managed to dig from Oppy’s, Antique Shops & general shitty spots over the last week on a fam holiday from Melbourne to Bundalong and anywhere in between. Pretty stoked with some of these!

Interesting results from the first round, the most clearly identified was the Tornts flip. Great to hear such variation in sample selection from the original. It brings out the question, ‘how do you base your choice on who made each beat?’ for me it was the distinct 808 drum track used by Tornts. Do you think if we all used the same drums we could pick it from just the programming? Perhaps we’ll flip things up again with another sample using this rounds producers but with the same drum samples? If you voted you should see the results percentage in the poll, if not click on the corresponding with the revealed beat and the results SHOULD show up. Stay posted for the next few round which will be posted this month as we bring you up to speed.

A few months ago I kicked off our blind beat production segment ‘Don’t Sweat the Technique’. The host for the month picks their sample, the sample is emailed to the producers, at the end of the month the beats will be showcased blindly and then the producers will be revealed a week later after the public has a crack a guessing who made the beat. This month I didn’t dig deep by any stretch, grabbing a half decent sounding synth track from a Vangelis LP from my closest crate. Listen and vote below with the revealed producers to follow.

Listen to what everyone mustered up below and have a guess who made which beat for the month. After a week come back and we’ll reveal who made what beat. If anyone can shoot me a link to something easier than the poll, shoot me a link…That shit was a prick!